Edge: 3DS Review

Nintendo's handheld arrives on Friday, but how well does the effect that wowed at tradeshows hold up at home?

Forget that 3.53-inch, autostereoscopic screen for a moment, and consider the fact that, without it, Nintendo’s 3DS is quite familiar. Three iterations of the old DS hardware have refined the blueprint of how Nintendo’s dual-screen consoles should look and feel, and 3DS is simply another step in that process. Its edges have been tapered (to ease opening the lid) and, viewed from the side, the unit appears as three ‘layers’ stacked upon one another. But these are minor, almost cosmetic, upgrades – the kind of refinements you see from a company perfecting a design, not reinventing it.